Songkick Sells Concert-Recommending Service to Warner

By BEN SISARIO

July 14, 2017

Songkick, a leading tech start-up in the music industry, is splitting in two.

In a deal announced on Friday, Warner Music Group has acquired the Songkick name and the company’s concert-recommendation business, which has a popular app and sends users customized feeds of local live-music listings. The price was not disclosed.

What Warner is not buying is perhaps more telling: Songkick’s ticketing business, which has had success handling limited advance ticket sales for artists like Adele and Paul McCartney, but which faces intense competition from Ticketmaster. In a closely watched lawsuit, Songkick has accused Ticketmaster of antitrust violations, including interfering with Songkick’s business and threatening the artists it works with.

Songkick’s concert-recommendation platform attracts 15 million people a month, according to the company.

The company’s ticketing business will continue on its own, under a new name it has not announced; that entity will pursue the lawsuit against Ticketmaster, whose parent company is the concert giant Live Nation Entertainment.

Then, in an amended complaint, Songkick accused Ticketmaster in February of hacking into its computer system and stealing trade secrets, with the help of an employee who had worked at CrowdSurge, which merged with Songkick two years ago.

In a statement, Matt Jones, who ran CrowdSurge before the merger and is now Songkick’s chief executive, pledged to continue its fight.

“On behalf of the many artists and fans we’ve served over the last decade,” Mr. Jones said, “we are committed to continuing our litigation against Live Nation and Ticketmaster independently.”

Songkick had raised at least $60 million from investors, including $25 million from Access Industries, the parent company of Warner Music Group.